1. Field of Invention
A carousel trailer hitch, providing an adaptive hitch for a box receiver hitch mounted underneath a vehicle bumper and attached to a vehicle frame, includes a box hitch attaching end to which is attached an angled spindle having a rotating carousel base member having a plurality of angled support arms, upon which is provided a plurality of varied ball hitches and implement hitch which may be rotated without being impeded by the bumper of the vehicle by the carousel base member being presented at an angle, with the support arms being further angle to provide each of the plurality of varied ball hitches and implement hitch at a level towing angle.
2. Description of Prior Art
The following United States patents were discovered and are disclosed within this application for utility patent. All relate to trailer hitches with multiple attaching points adapted to either an existing hitch or adapted to a towing vehicle.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,714 to Bell, a hitch frame is mounted to a vehicle frame after which a carousel plate is mounted to the underside of a projecting plate providing three ball hitches mounted to extension arms welded to the carousel plate and a box hitch receiver. It is not adapted to be attached to a factory box hitch of a vehicle. It is a substitute for a factory box hitch.
In three U.S. Pat. No. 6,497,428 to Ross, U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,982 to Walrath and U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,313 to Schroeder, multiple ball hitches adapted to a box hitch are disclosed. Ross includes a vehicle attaching member extending beyond a bumper, with a bolt attaching an upper and lower circular plate, the upper plate having three ball hitches welded to the upper surface of the upper plate and the lower plate being welded to the vehicle attaching member, with the upper plate turning upon the lower plate around the bolt with a plurality of holes in the upper plate being aligned with a single hole in the lower plate engaged and locked by a locking pin. Schroder includes a vehicle mounting member with an upper C-shaped arm extending over the member with a disk having a plurality of mounting balls welded to its upper surface with a spring loaded locking pin suspended above the mounting plate engaging selected holes in the mounting plate to lock the plate into a position. Walruth has a similar plate with an upward curved arm supporting the plate from a box hitch mounting arm with the selected ball locked into position by the tightening of a central bolt.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,316 to Hutchmacher and U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,279 to Direk have plates mounting directly to a flat portion of a pickup bumper at the conventional ball mounting location, with Hutchmacher having a plate mounted to the bumper and a rotating member in a hole in the plate, with the varied ball hitches attached to the rotating plate and Direk having a circular plate with ball hitches attached to it directly attached to the flat portion of the bumper. A bumper mounted multiple ball hitch is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,911,233 to Riddle. It is not adapted to a box hitch.
A multiple ball device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,571 to Tienstra provides some type of mounting base attached to a vehicle with the balls rotating in a vertical circular pathway perpendicular to rotational axis, while U.S. Pat. No. 3,801,134 to Dees provides another mounting base allowing for vertical rotation around the rotational axis.
None of these devices provide a multiple hitch device adapted to a box receiver hitch having a receiver hitch attaching member attached to a cylindrical collar at a 30 degree angle, the cylindrical collar having a central bore within which a central spindle is rotatably engaged, the central spindle having a shaft, an upper end with a spindle cap larger than the central bore, and a lower end to which is attached a flat middle portion of a cross arm member with at least four terminal ends bent at a 30 degree angle extending from the flat middle portion, each terminal end having a different sized ball hitch or an implement hitch receiver, the cylindrical collar and the shaft of the central spindle having transverse bores which when aligned, receive a locking pin to retain the central spindle within the cylindrical collar at a fixed position. The 30 degree angle of the cylindrical collar allows for complete rotation of the cross arm member with the hitch balls mounted to the terminal ends without the hitch balls coming into contact with the receiver hitch to which the device attaches, while presenting the selected terminal end in a horizontal plane for level towing, reducing the profile of the device when attached to the receiver hitch, and minimizing the length of the attaching member to reduce lateral stress of the attaching member, improving the overall strength and utility of the device.